Welcome to your Offer Holder Hub! 

Congratulations on your offer to study at King’s Business School! This offer holder hub will guide you as you take the next steps toward a life-changing experience with us in the heart of London. Explore everything you need to know and get prepared before starting your new journey. 

Although this content was up-to-date at the time it was produced, some changes to courses and teaching staff may occur. 

The Research Methods course is critical in helping students to prepare for and carry out their dissertations, and in ensuring that you are able to read and analyse key evaluation literature in a critical way. For those of you who have done little maths or statistics recently, we strongly recommend that you do some revision before you arrive. We have attached some (old but good!) mathematics revision notes here relating to the quantitative methods component of the course: these were written by a colleague for an earlier cohort, and incoming students have found them useful ever since. They will give you some indication of the key concepts which underpin statistical analysis, and also suggest some useful websites (page 4) for those of you who have not done any mathematics at all recently. NB the document refers to Appendix A and B. These have been removed, so don't wonder where they have gone.

These cover all the material of which we assume mastery, plus some additional topics which we will be addressing directly in the Research Methods course. As a rule of thumb, if any of the material in these notes is unfamiliar, or something you only did a good while ago, then you should work through it carefully. Apart from percentages and decimals you will need to understand basic descriptive statistics (eg., mean, median, mode), and be able to handle very basic algebra; otherwise, you may have trouble keeping up. While the Research Methods course is designed to support students with varied academic backgrounds, and course leaders will be available during term to offer guidance, we do take mastery of these basic concepts as a starting point.

You may also find it helpful to carry out some preliminary reading on microeconomics. There are several good basic introductory textbooks on the market, although one that we recommend is P Krugman, R Wells and K Graddy, Economics (European edition). Look at chapters 1-5, chapter 7 and chapter 10. Cheap second hand copies available here and elsewhere. During the year we also make considerable use of J Gruber, Public Finance and Public Policy. Part II of this book is especially relevant (but as well as, not instead of, a basic economics textbook). The website https://www.core-econ.org is another high quality and highly useful resource with which you may want to engage.

Whether or not you have studied economics or other social sciences recently, we recommend the following as general background pre-entry reading. All are easily available from on-line booksellers. Used copies are perfectly fine, and you can also search for freely available e-copies.

1. Tim Harford: The Undercover Economist. This shows how the basic concepts of microeconomics can be used to explain a very wide range of phenomena, and helps explain why these concepts are so important in modern public services research and reforms
2. James Q Wilson: Bureaucracy: what government agencies do and why they do it. This is a classic and very readable account, which is highly relevant to the courses you will follow this year even though it was written some time ago. It is also quite a thick book, so it is a good idea to read it before arriving.
3. Julian Le Grand: The Other Invisible Hand- delivering public services through choice and competition. Le Grand, an economist, academic and government adviser, is one of the foremost advocates of the 'choice' based approach to public service delivery which has been extremely influential for the last twenty years across the political spectrum. This provides a good general introduction to the arguments, which will be examined critically in MSc courses.
4. Thomas Elston: Understanding and Improving Public Management Reforms. Using concepts from psychology, economics, and organisational sociology, Elston asks a fundamental question: ‘why do top-down reforms to public services so often over-promise and underdeliver?’ Using varied examples, he suggests that policy professionals and service managers alike refocus their attention to the challenges of policy implementation.

Public management scholarship and practice have been led, for at least the past three decades, by many scholars and practitioners based in the United Kingdom. And although your M.Sc. course is comparative and international in its scope and orientation, it is grounded firmly in an understanding of how the UK government and public sector work. Consequently, please do read the first chapter from Norman Flynn’s very useful introductory text Public Sector Management (7^th ed, 2017). If you feel you lack sufficient familiarity with the UK political and governmental system, undertake further reading from Flynn’s book.

Details of dates/times/places are as follows:

• The PPM programme induction session will run Wednesday 24 September from 10.00-13.00 in Bush House Lecture Theatre 1, BH (S)1.01.
• The PPM careers induction session will run Wednesday 24 September from 15.00-16.00 in Macadam Building MB3.1
• The PPM induction social will run Wednesday 24 September from 17.00-18.30 in Bush House (SE) 2.12

Finally, an in-person economics refresher class will take place during Term 1 Reading Week (which runs from 3 November 2025) and is compulsory for all students. Final details about the economics refresher class will be confirmed closer to the date. Part-time students, especially those without a strong background in economics, should strongly consider arranging to take time off to attend the economics refresher class (if required).

Module lists for the next academic year can be found under the 'Teaching & Structure' Section of the course page. You can use the drop down to select the year that you would like to see the required and optional modules for.

Modules may be structured as lecture/tutorial or workshops. For modules taught in the lecture/tutorial format, you'll find that you have two separate sessions to attend each week, one where your module leader will give a presentation (the lecture), and another, smaller session which is focused on interactive discussion (the tutorial). Workshops combine elements of lectures and tutorials into one, longer session.

Get a closer look at what you’ll be studying with some of our module guides below. 

Your personal timetable will include all the teaching-related activities you are required to attend, which will vary based on the optional modules you choose.

The schedule below provides an indicative overview of when compulsory and optional modules are typically held:

Semester 1

Compulsory Modules

• Organisation and Management of the Public Services – Thursday
• Research Methods in Public Policy and Management – Thursday
• The Public Policy-Making Process – Friday

Optional Modules

• Regulating Business and Society – Tuesday
• People Management in the Public Services – Tuesday
• Leadership in the Public Services – Friday 

Semester 2

Compulsory Modules

• Economics of Public Management – Thursday
• Dissertation – Thursday

Optional Modules

• PPM Consultancy – Monday
• Changing Public Services Organisations – Tuesday
• Risk and Crisis Management – Tuesday 
• Data analytics – Wednesday 
• Practical and Theoretical Policy Evaluation – Friday
• Key Issues in Health Policy – Friday

This timetable is for reference only and may be subject to change. Your final schedule will be available closer to the start of the semester.

In this event recording, you'll meet three alumni from the programme who are now working in different sectors in the UK and overseas. They will share their studies and experiences as a postgraduate student at King's Business School, which may aid your preparation for studying this course at King’s Business School.

This recording is from our most recent offer holder event. Please note that course details and teaching staff may be subject to change. We’ll keep you updated on future events. Thank you.

Connect with your future classmates on our Unibuddy Community! Keep an eye on your email for the link to join. 

At King’s Business School, postgraduate students on our Marketing, Management, or Entrepreneurship programmes benefit from a tailored careers programme designed to support their success in a competitive global job market. This support is provided by KBS Careers, your dedicated careers service.

From the moment you arrive and during the early weeks of Semester 1, you’ll be introduced to the careers consultants who support your programme. Via an induction session and tailored Career Masterclass, we provide essential careers information and a set of tools to ensure you can manage your career development successfully from the start.

You'll also benefit from personalised 1:1 career coaching, skills workshops, and employer networking events including Banking, Consulting and Investment industry nights. Students are also able to take advantage of our work-related learning offer, which offers business simulations and micro internships to help you build your portfolio.

Our KBS Global Careers Programme supports international students with visa guidance, tailored global job market insights, and in-country events in multiple locations, including China and India. In addition to our English-speaking career consultations, we also offer dedicated Mandarin-language career consultations and have a growing alumni network of over 12,000 KBS graduates worldwide.

With exclusive Business School access to industry-grade platforms for case practice, CV writing, interview practice and the King’s Business School Trading Room, you’ll be equipped with the tools, insights and connections to explore roles in consulting, marketing, finance, entrepreneurship and beyond.

Want to know more about life at King's or our campuses?

• Chat with current students on Unibuddy
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• King's College London (@lifeatkings)
• King's Careers & Employability (@kingscareers)
• KCLSU (@kclsu)

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